The plight of a 50-year-old disabled woman who was refused entry to the United States after a U.S. border agent accessed information about a “mental illness” episode she had has sparked demands for inquiries.

MPP France Gelinas (Nickel Belt) and MP Mike Sullivan (York South-West) have both formally sent letters asked the respective provincial and federal privacy commissioners to find out how the health information of Ellen Richardson came to be shared with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

“This is scary,” Gelinas told the Star. “They got access to information that should never have been accessible to anyone.”

In her letter to Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner Dr. Ann Cavoukian, Gelinas said she knows of “two Ontarians” who were each “identified at the border and their health history was used to deny access.”

Gelinas said Richardson is one of those people. She would not identify the other person but said in that case it “was not a mental health issue.’’

“Canadians must be assured that their personal records are kept confidential, as intended,” Sullivan said.

On Monday, Richardson attempted to fly to New York en route to a $6,000 10-day Caribbean cruise, in collaboration with a March of Dimes group.

However, she was told by a U.S. border agent at Toronto’s Pearson airport that she couldn’t board the flight without getting a “medical clearance” from one of only three Ontario doctors whose assessments are accepted by Homeland Security.

Richardson was told by the agent that their computer system revealed that she had had a mental illness episode in 2012. The paperwork she was given reflects that.

Richardson had been treated in 2012 for clinical depression at a Toronto hospital, after a “half-hearted” attempt at suicide, following a relationship breakup. She says she had taken pills but then stopped, “realizing that I could not go through with the attempt.” A family member had nonetheless called an ambulance and also passed on a suicide letter, Richardson had written, to her doctors.

A previous attempt at suicide in 2001, in which she jumped off the Bloor Viaduct bridge as a result of delusions, had been more serious. That experience, which she wrote in a book published in 2008, left her paraplegic.

But between 2001 and 2012, she had been on medications that kept her feeling stable. She says that since being treated for clinical depression following the 2012 incident, her condition has again stabilized. Richardson, who has a master’s degree in counselling, sees a psychiatrist with whom she has a very good relationship. She offered her doctor’s name and phone number to the border agent at the airport but was told it “would not suffice.”

Richardson said she was too shocked and devastated at the time to ask the agent how he got her medical information. She now believes that it was an “invasion of privacy” and “discriminatory of people with mental illness.’’

Sadly, it happens a lot, says lawyer Barry Swardon, who says he has given advice to “many people who have had a similar problem.” One of those was Ontario woman Lois Kamenitz, 64, who was not allowed to get on a flight at Pearson Airport in 2011 because border authorities had accessed information about her suicide attempt years earlier.

Unfortunately, “you can’t fight a foreign government” legally, said Swardon. He said once information is fed into computer systems that track interactions with police, even non-criminal matters can end up being documented in the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC ) database. The RCMP manages the database and shares it with the FBI in the United States.

“There should be a tightening of the legislation” so that health information is not shared with U.S. authorities in cases where there are no criminal charges, Swardon said.

“It breaks my heart. This has a chilling effect on people reaching out for help. People start to think, well, next time I’m not going to make the call – the call for help,” he said, because there will be a record of that call and it could get into a police database.

The Canadian Mental Health Association believes the disclosure of mental health police records “is discriminatory and increases the stigma of mental illnesses,” said spokeswoman Camille Quenneville. “Mental health police records are created as a result of medical intervention, not criminal contact. In other words, mental health police records are not criminal records and should not be treated as such.

“Looking at it another way, why would a person living with and receiving adequate support for a mental health issues be treated differently than someone with a physical ailment? Would someone with cancer be stopped at the border and denied entry?”

Richardson has also launched a claim with her insurance company, Ingle International, to get a refund. Although she’s already been told that “being denied boarding is not a covered risk” under the policy, spokeswoman Amber Robinson said the company will be reviewing the claim.

“Hopefully, we’ll be able to assist Ms. Richardson in some way,” she said.

More on thestar.com

We value respectful and thoughtful discussion. Readers are encouraged to flag comments that fail to meet the standards outlined in our
Community Code of Conduct.
For further information, including our legal guidelines, please see our full website
Terms and Conditions.